Sure. But if the captain from Out of Gas had been a wisecracking man who took care of his crew first and only, wore tight pants and was in love with a whore whose job he didn't respect, I would say he and Mal had some substantial things in common, despite the one big glaring difference.
All I really see in common with Jubal and the Operative, even now, is a certain matter-of-fact way of doing their job. They didn't dress alike (Jubal had that dark red, spider-like space suit, while the Operative dressed in blues/greys), didn't approach the case anything similiar (above, mentions that Jubal's attack is all from the inside, like an infection, while the one place that the Operative doesn't get is inside the ship), didn't have the same relationship to the Alliance.
Jubal smacked Inara for getting in the way of his job. So did the Operative.
Jubal smacked Inara for getting into his head, 'visiting his intentions'. The Operative smacked Inara for, well, attacking him first. I just really see those as different.
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All I really see in common with Jubal and the Operative, even now, is a certain matter-of-fact way of doing their job. They didn't dress alike (Jubal had that dark red, spider-like space suit, while the Operative dressed in blues/greys), didn't approach the case anything similiar (above, mentions that Jubal's attack is all from the inside, like an infection, while the one place that the Operative doesn't get is inside the ship), didn't have the same relationship to the Alliance.
Jubal smacked Inara for getting in the way of his job. So did the Operative.
Jubal smacked Inara for getting into his head, 'visiting his intentions'. The Operative smacked Inara for, well, attacking him first. I just really see those as different.